Anyways, quite the update today. Just when I think things are meandering along I get surprised by a sudden burst of productivity from our builders. Mind it's all relative so it could just as easily be said I'm used to them doing feck all so any positive movement is a plus. And they had plenty of opportunity as I was at the hospital with the wife attending a pre-natal course for 7hrs. Yes, 7hrs! But that's an excrutiatingly, mind-numbingly, boring story for another thread.

Anyway, to start, the driveway...

This caused a lot of head scratching. I wasn't quite sure what to go with (particularly after seeing the impressive stamped concrete look in another thread) and I was always kinda keen to have it take up as little of the yard area as was possible.. Initially we were going to match it to the existing drive. But that's the problem, you can't match it - it would always be a slightly different colouring/shade. So what we went for is this:

The 'inter-locking' tiles. The idea is that the grass will grow between the hollow sections and camouflage it to an extent. Here's a close up of the sections to get a better idea of what I mean:

Of course that's the idea. In practice it will probably only be horrible, scraggly old weeds that grow there, the tiles will subside and crack, and we'll be left with an absolute bloody mess that we'll have to rip up and replace with stamped concrete like we should've done in the first place. Oh well, the important thing is that if it does all go pear-shaped it's our cock-up so we can live with that.

And while I'm on the topic of cock-ups...

I have to admit I think we've made a mistake here with the window. I don't know what changed my mind but instead of going for three central, hinged, windows I went with a single sliding one. It may have been slightly less practical but, meh. I just don't think it looks very nice with one big single - a bit too 'commercial' if you follow? Couldíve easily been rectified by having the side windows open but we didnít think of that either. Brilliant.

Then again it doesnít look to bad from the inside Ė but thatís the key I guess, it couldíve looked better:

The door is ok, but then again you sorta have to put effort into attempting to cock that up. It simply matches the style of the others in the house:

I have already been parking my car in the carport and the good news is that the Measurement Faries didn't magically subtract a foot or two in the building process so it fits as was intended.

Also today they have finished off the ceiling in the carport and under the overhang thingy for the bay window (and I have been assured that "thingy" is the correct technical term):

So at the risk of tempting the mockers God's to cause an earthquake to destroy everything... we're pretty close to being done with the construction side of things. There is however one thing that remains, and it just so happens that it's the one thing that I have been dreading the most...

[Cue suitably dreading-type music...]

This wall:

has to go. Because this is such a focal point of everything we are doing (by making it an arch to link the current living room), it has the potential to be an utter, utter, utter cock-up. A cock-up of biblical proportions. The kind of cock-up that hasn’t been seen since Bush's 'election'.

Rather brilliantly though my wife has already taken some steps to limit the amount of concrete dust we have to inhale and pick out of our food. I came home from work last night and she'd already put these up:

Plastic sheeting to prevent the spread of the mess. Of course the TV and 4,000lb cabinet will still have to be moved and covered. I had considered 'forgetting' about that and hoping it would also be done by my wife while I was at work but then I remembered she is heavily pregnant so shouldn't be lifting things... she could drop my TV for starters!!!

It will be nice to look back at those pictures of your lovely tv and remember fondly when it was in one piece and working

For your arch it would be a better finish and a better curve if you knock down the whole wall and use plaster board to build the arch etc, otherwise they will be forever poncing around trying to get a curve that you find acceptable.

It will be nice to look back at those pictures of your lovely tv and remember fondly when it was in one piece and working

That's why I made sure to snap a pic when it was on - at least I'll have a still of some crappy movie (Vertical Limit I think?) to remind me of it

For your arch it would be a better finish and a better curve if you knock down the whole wall and use plaster board to build the arch etc, otherwise they will be forever poncing around trying to get a curve that you find acceptable.

Yeah true that. Problem is however that the mains power board is also located near there (behind the wall on the left as you look at that pic) and the electrican said that if we were to take down the whole wall a lot of that would have to be redone also (there's a conduit of about 1 1/2ft that runs down the side of the wall). And that would also mean tearing down part of the false ceiling.

^^ Actually I should also add that the arch isn't really a 'full arch' either. Better way to describe it might be simply as the top curling in a little. Reason being is that it matches the arch that is now above the baywindow (used to be the entrance to the carport) so gives a bit of uniformity also.

It is so easy when building or altering a property, for us morons, who are not architects, designers or possibly builders, to hit upon an idea and get fixated on it, without giving other options full regard. I made one or two fairly simple mistakes, when designing our new place, that I will now have to live with!

It is so easy when building or altering a property, for us morons, who are not architects, designers or possibly builders, to hit upon an idea and get fixated on it, without giving other options full regard. I made one or two fairly simple mistakes, when designing our new place, that I will now have to live with!

I don't know how you've done it boozer, but in those few short sentences I think you've pretty much perfectly summed it up for me also - hit the nail on the head as the experts say

[Edit - just tried to green you for that but it won't let me. What's up with that!? ]

Worryingly I have just received a call from my wife. It's a worry because she said 'the guy (all these builders and they're all called "Guy") was just about to head off to buy the paint.

This is a worry for several reasons, chiefly amongst those are:

a) we hadn't even decided to go with paint yet and were considering wallpaper (although 'Guy' reckons he can apply paint in such a way that seam lines etc won't be apparent) and;
b) we haven't really settled on a colour yet (leaning towards a terracotta/orangey/Spanish Villa type colour).

So I suggested that perhaps 'Guy' would be better served getting some sample colours or those colour sheet thingies so we can actually make a decision before he comes back with multiple cans of pink paint or sumfing.

First they are going to use an angle grinder to grind a channel into that lovely concrete to create a weak point, this will create dust that you will be finding in your house for the next few months, yes the whole house, white footprints all over the place, then with nice big hammers they will whack away at it with no regard for where the lumps of wall will be flying off to or what they may hit and the damage that maybe done, we generally don't tell customers that bit, try to keep it like a trade secret

And dont be thnking that they will automatically choose to start outside where the dust and dirt dont matter. Seen 'em start inside one time just becuase there was a socket for the impact drill they were using

So we're going to go with a 'feature-wall' instead. Basically the arch wall will be painted a kind of burnt-orange to match with the bare-brick that forms the book shelf.

Sounds like a good idea! However, will be most interested to see how long it takes your painter to make a good job of where the burnt-orange paintwork joins the contrasting colour, which I presume is white!